UTICA, N.Y. — Canada made it six in a row with a 13-7 victory over the United States to capture another World Lacrosse Men’s Box Championship. Canada has won all six of the championships contested in this event that dates to 2003.
The U.S. won silver for the first time after winning the bronze at each of the first five championships.
“We’re closing the gap, but obviously we’ve still got more to go,” said U.S. head coach Regy Thorpe. “Gold’s the standard now. We’re happy with silver, it’s certainly better than bronze, but gold’s the standard and we’ve got to start working now for 2028.”
The U.S. scored the final two goals of the first half, pulling to within 4-3 on Blaze Riorden’s goal with 5:05 left in the second quarter.
“We had a decent 30 minutes, held them to four and had a couple of chances on the one-timers,” Thorpe said. “We were close, but they didn’t go in.”
The U.S. could not maintain the momentum as Canada dominated the early stages of the third quarter, scoring six goals in the first six minutes of the quarter. C.J. Kirst scored a short-handed goal for the U.S. team with 4:56 left in the third quarter and Joey Spallina’s power play goal with 59 seconds left in the quarter cut Canada’ lead to 10-5 entering the final quarter.
Canada once again seized momentum, getting power play goals from Dhane Smith and Josh Byrne to open the fourth and put the game out of reach.
Canada goalie Christian Del Bianco was a major factor in the game making 51 saves to earn the victory.
Smith had a team-high eight points for Canada (2g, 6a), Jeff Teat had three goals and four assists and Shayne Jackson had a hat trick, including two first-quarter goals to help set the tone.
Joe Reserarits, playing in his third world championship for the U.S., had a team-high three goals and two assists. Team captain Blaze Riorden, another three-time U.S. player, had a goal and two assists and Charlie Bertrand had three assists.
The U.S. had two players named to the all-tournament team, Jack Hannah and Connor Kirst, joining Canada’s Del Bianco, Steven Priolo and Teat and the Haudenosaunee’s Randy Staats. Teat was named the tournament MVP.
